Monday, October 28, 2013

Commissioned by a client in North Carolina, this 16" Dragonfly
is a boldly colored shade with multiple textures and types of glass.
The background glass is a green and blue mix with fracture and
streamers, giving the shade a unique "pond" look. The green ripple
borders add texture to the shade. The shade is shown on the highly
detailed Cereus base.

Thursday, October 24, 2013

We created this 12" Apple Blossom shade in the mid-1990's as a showroom piece. It features a fracture/streamer background glass and is shown on the delicate Torpedo base. This lamp is in a private collection.

Monday, October 21, 2013

One of Tiffany Studios' most celebrated lamps is the 28" Magnolia shade on the Senior Floor base. Unlike most Tiffany shade motifs which were available in multiple sizes, the Magnolia was only offered as a 28" shade. We recently completed one of these spectacular lamps for a client in Los Angeles.

Creating a large floral shade takes quite a bit of time and patience. For this shade we selected a color scheme that is lighter at the top and becomes richer towards the lower half. Many of the large flowers in the shade were cut from Drapery Glass.

Magnolia shades have become synonymous with Drapery Glass - the thee
dimensional hand-folded sheet glass invented by Tiffany Studios. While
not all original Tiffany Magnolia shades employ Drapery Glass, its use
in this shade elevates this pattern to a higher level.

For our shade, we
culled one of a kind pieces of Drapery from our glass library that we
have been saving for just the right project. Much of the Drapery Glass
used in this shade was created by the celebrated Schlitz Studios in the
1990's. In the two photos above, Irwin is completing a final check of one section of the lamp and picking a border glass.

Once the glass has been selected and all the pieces are cut and fit to the pattern, each piece is individually wrapped in copper foil and transferred onto the form. The shade form has been coated with a beeswax mixture which will allow the glass to adhere before soldering.

Soldering a shade of this size will take several days. In the photo below, Irwin is seen soldering the outside of the Magnolia shade. We use a special shade holder which was made to our specifications to be able to support the weight of these large shades and still allow us to tilt the shade to any angle while soldering.

Once the outside of the shade is completely soldered, the form is heated so the wax will melt and release the shade. Leftover wax is melted away on the interior of the shade before reinforcing wires are added and the interior is soldered.

The shade is finished with a solid brass lower rim and is then ready for cleaning. The cleaned shade is copper plated so the lead lines can be given a verdigris patina. Once completed, the shade is signed and numbered and ready to be displayed on the Senior Floor base.

Thursday, October 17, 2013

Tiffany Studios created many unusual shade designs, including this 16" Geometric with Lustre Balls. The
simple shade is bisected by a row of iridescent glass balls, giving the
shade a unique three dimensional look. Each hand made ball is held in
place individually in an over sized jeweler's - style setting which
allows the translucent ball to pick up light from inside the shade. The
shade is shown on the Vial base which features glass blown into the open
metalwork at the bottom.

Wednesday, October 9, 2013

Wednesday, October 2, 2013

The 14" Crocus shade is an unusual stylized floral design. The light purples and greens give the shade a airy feel. Created in 2005 as a showroom piece, this lamp is in a private collection. The Pigeon Foot base is raised on three long legs, giving the base an unusual visual profile.

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About Me

Century Studios is a stained glass studio in St. Paul, Minnesota, specializing in Tiffany lamp reproductions.
All text and images are copyright 2008-2009 Century Studios and may not be reproduced without permission.